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Sunday, February 28, 2010

About a year ago, I posted part 1 of a great 2007 BBC documentary called "Nightmare In The City That Never Sleeps," that looked at what led up to and what resulted from the 1970's Financial Crisis in New York City. (Update: The video is no longer available and has been pulled.)

Yesterday while out on a day trip, I picked up an old copy of Newsweek Magazine, dated July 14th, 1975 that had some additional information in an informative article titled "The Crisis In Stink City." This, along with another article I already had in the Archives, "Rescuing New York, and Other Tales" from Time Magazine (also released on July 14, 1975) seemed as good a reason as any to go back revisit this bleak and fascinating time in the city's history. Enjoy...

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Remember the early high tech days of 1983? When a Commodore 64 computer was considered a state of the art machine? I do. I had one. It was a great machine for games and I had plenty of 'em. But I never had this one...

(From Wikipedia):

Save New York is a 1983 computer game for the Commodore 64 by Creative Software Inc.Save New York is a shoot 'em up game where the player has to protect New York City from invading aliens. The game takes place on a single static screen with various skyscraper buildings and a subway tunnel running underneath them. At either edge of the screen is an airplane launching pad. The game can be played by one or two players. Player one has a white airplane and player two has a blue one. In a two-player game, both airplanes are on screen at the same time. During play, aliens resembling large bats begin to descend from the sky, flying towards the buildings. If left alone, they will eat parts of the buildings, eventually causing them to collapse. The player has to shoot the aliens to stop them from eating the buildings. When all aliens on a level have been killed, the game progresses to the next level. The player earns bonus points for each apartment still left intact.

Another game element is a plane passing over the city from time to time dropping fuel canisters which the player has to catch to refuel his airplane.When the airplane is landed on its launching pad, its pilot can descend down to the subway tunnel. There he has to avoid the subway trains which can crush him on contact. On later levels, some aliens drop eggs which hatch upon landing on the ground, revealing a little blue alien which descends down to the subway tunnel and heads towards the buildings' basement. If the alien reaches the basement, it will start eating it, eventually causing the whole building to collapse. Killing this alien usually requires visiting the subway tunnel. The players' airplanes can also shoot the buildings and each other, but this is not beneficial towards completing the level.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

"In a shabby and decayed corner of lower Manhattan some of the most extraordinary buildings ever constructed in the United States stand forgotten, awaiting ultimate demolition. Now housing storehouses and small businesses, they are the great "palaces of trade" of the 1850's and 1860's, whose revolutionary iron-and-glass facades anticipated the technology of modern glass-and-steel skyscrapers. Cast iron meant beauty and strength, making possible such elegant effects as Renaissance colonades (top photo) and florid detailing (above) at a fraction of the price of carved stone. Today, though, architects and scholors from all over the world come to admire these now-forlorn copies of Italian palazzi, most New Yorkers are unaware of their existence. They are disfigured by posters and thick coats of paint, recognizable somethimes only by the protruding bolts which hold them together or the telltale ring of a hollow column. Many have already been torn down to make way for parking lots. Last year dozens narrowly escaped destruction when plans for an expressway were finally abandoned. Unless the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the area as a historic district, the buildings will undoubtedly be torn down for urban renewal projects."

"The cast-iron building, patented in 1850, was an instant success with the hardheaded entreprenuers of the Civil War period. It was cheap and fire-resistant, it had a European elegance and it could be assembled in a few weeks. Prefabricated sections were cast in the factory, shipped to the building site and bolted together. Folio catalogues, illustrated with tasteful lithographs (above), offered such exotic styles as "Byzantine Romanesque" and "Veneto-Roman-Gothic." The Haughwout Building (below) (this one was saved and still stands today - more information and photos HERE) - the most beautiful cast-iron structure in the city - was built in Venetian Renaissance style in 1857 on lower Broadway, then one of the most fashionable boulevards in the world. Haughwout's was the Tiffany's of it's day, offering china, silver and glassware and sporting New York's first passenger elevator. Now it is the soot-laden home of a rag-goods concern. The glitter and glory have long since fled uptown."

"Prefab Portico on Bond Street - This Georgian portico (above), handsomely decorated with beribboned torches, frames the enterance to a mass mailing establishment on Bond Street. More columns and pediments, it was said, were cast in New York City than ever were carved in ancient Greece or Rome."

"Eclectic enterance on Greene Street - This enterance on Greene Street is an inspired hodgepodge of eclectic ornament. The classical pediment is decorated with rococo scrolls, and the bases of the columns do not even match. The portico is crowned with a bulbous ornament of an Oriental character."

Sunday, February 21, 2010

The Gorgeous One and I watched "See No Evil, Hear No Evil" (1989) yesterday. I'd seen it several years ago but I'd forgotten that the story takes place in NYC. There are some really great scenes of the city as it looked in those late 1980's days throughout the movie. It stars Richard Pryor, who plays a blind man who refuses to accept that he's blind and Gene Wilder, a deaf man who refuses to accept that he is deaf. The pair find themselves mixed up in a crazy scenario that has them running from the NYPD and from some killers who are trying to pin a murder on them. They must rely on each other to overcome their individual disabilities and much hilarity ensues. If you have never seen it you should put it on you list of movies to watch...soon.

Two years ago this week, Tesla rolled into the Myth in Maplewood, MN armed with a camera crew and enough cameras to...well...film a DVD. The special guest was Cinder Road, a straight ahead rock and roll outfit who played a fine set to open the evening.

Several of these signs were posted on the walls outside the club and on the doors as you went in. They definately wanted you to know that you might be filmed or photographed during the course of the evening. Tesla hit the stage and were in fine form, playing to the Sold Out crowd a set that included 19 songs, old and new, and lasted over two hours. And you could see cameras everywhere you looked...above the stage, in front of the stage, out in the main floor area of the club. I was sure when the DVD was released I'd probably catch a glimpse of myself, but I have watched it several times and apparently they didn't manage to catch my ugly mug rocking out. Maybe that's a good thing. They did, however, catch my buddy, "337's brother", you can see him briefly at one point in the DVD.

Here is a print ad that appeared locally to announce the release of the DVD. When I went to Best Buy to pick up my copy on the day it was released, they must have had a few hundred copies on the shelf. I wonder how well it actually sold.

Yesterday, I wrote about the time in 1983 when Kiss came to Minnesota and were met head on by religious zealots who disagreed with the Kiss "message" and life style and tried, unsuccessfully, to convert the band to their way of thinking. Today, via an article from the February 19, 1981 issue of Rolling Stone Magazine, we take a closer look at these men, The Peters Brothers, and their message of religious intolerance.

Minneapolis, MN
For the past year or so, brothers Jim and Steve Peters, both ordained ministers, have been traveling around the nation on a mission from God. Convinced that rock and roll is "one of the largest satanic forces in the country," they have been exhorting American kids to build bonfires of albums in public places - "real keggers," says Jim Peters in the parlance of his native Minnesota.

These crusading brothers estimate that at least $500,000 worth of records, tapes and paraphernalia by Kiss, Ted Nugent, the Cars, the Eagles, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Blondie, Linda Ronstadt, Led Zeppelin, John Denver, et al. have gone up in smoke (or at least their album jackets have; because vinyl smolders acridly, the records themselves are smashed and discarded).

In some places this might be considered fanaticism, an appelation that bothers Pastor Steve not at all. "Some people considered Jesus a fanatic," he notes. "Lord, we thank you for America , which let's us give witness to you in the way we do," says Pastor LeRoy Peters (father of Steve and Jim), a born-again heating contractor who accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior thirty-four years ago. He is offering a prayer before the weekend burning at the Zion Christian Life Center in North St. Paul, where two of his sons conduct their firey antirock ministry. (Just a few months ago, their church was the Silver Skate Roller Rink.)

About 100 pilgrims have gathered around the outdoor blaze, and through a bullhorn, Steve announces, "Knowing that the life styles, lyrics, intentions and album covers of many of the rock stars are perverse, immoral, profane and unscriptural, and that they often condone and/or promote indulgence in the same, we rid our lives of them tonight!"

With that, hundreds more albums are thrown upon the pyre, the heat forcing back many of the faithful.

The Peterses held about fifty antirock "seminars" last year, fourteen of which culminated in record burnings. Twenty-three seminars were already scheduled for January and February of this year, including several during an eleven day pilgrimage to Mexico City. Virtually all of the conflagrations are preceded by the Peterses' celebrated lecture, "What The Devil's Wrong With Rock Music," which features 140 slides, overhead projections of twenty-five transparencies and, on occasion, tapes of some of the current Hot Hundred.

Steve, 27, straight-faced and serious, coordinates the transparencies, which display Biblical quotations: "Be not deceived; evil company corrupts good morals" (1 Corinthians 15:33). "The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire (Deuteronomy 7:25). There is also more homespun advice: "Warning to Christians: Listening to rock music will be harmful to your spiritual, emotional and mental health. We recommend gospel and Christian music only."

Jim, 24, is slightly more animated, with his fast, nasal twang: he handles the slides, which are usually color shots of album covers. A self-proclaimed professional drummer since age thirteen, occasionally playing with Andre Crouch and the Disciples, Jim has sophisticated insight into the black art of sound recording. A man who speaks about phasing and multi-track recording like a studio veteran, he proffers these clipped homilies:

*Mick Jagger is an avowed homosexual!

*Janis Joplin was an admitted bi-sexual and drug addict; if she hadn't died of drugs, venereal disease would have eaten her up!

*TM basically means peace without Jesus Christ!

*You may think that Barry Manilow is just Twinky music that makes you soft and mushy inside. He'll have to answer as to whether he influenced people to find Christ or remain lost!

*Jesus Christ Superstar is blasphemy; when Christ dies, he's in the grave. I know personally that Christ didn't remain in the grave - Buddha did. I'm sorry. Some of you may be crushed.

*The cover of an Alan Parsons Project album has girls with Syphilis sores on their faces cloaked by veils!

*John Denver says that with the help of his guru, he will become God!

*KISS stands for Kids in Service to Satan. Look into the eyes of Gene Simmons. he bible tells us that the eyes are the windows of the soul. Nobody's home there!

*The Eagles' "Hotel California" is about he Church of Satan. I mean, I don't know any other hotel where they'll let you check out but you can't leave!

Then there's Pastor Steve. "Young people," he warns, "you may like rock music. That still doesn't make it right. It only takes a few demons. And don't think we just mean a few demons hiding in a bongo drum over in Africa. (WHAT?!?) Hey, we're not condemning these musicians. Jesus died for them, too. They're all on my prayer list. Look at Bob Dylan. Be praying for him. He's accepted the Lord, but he's coming out of a lot of garbage."

The lecturing is interspersed with more scripture, an invitation to come forward to be born again, an offering collection (...of course!), an introduction for "two of the best 'missionaries' our church has ever produced" (an eight dollar set of cassettes, of which more than 3000 sets reportedly have been sold, some mailed as far away as Belgium, Australia and New Zealand) and impromptu remarks from Pastor Jim decrying, for instance, how TV has become the family altar.

These sentiments were instilled early on in the Peters Brothers by their mother, Josephine, who continues to counsel them. "I remember the day Danny [their older brother] brought home a Beach Boys record," says Josephine Peters. "I sensed it wasn't Christian. The Beach Boys just had a different message than we were used to in this house. We realized Satan was all around us. So we eliminated some things from this home, television for one."

"Some mothers complain to me about the burnings. They think they're too severe. Some say it reminds them of the burnings in Nazi Germany. I shouldn't say this, but when we were in high school, we thought Mr. Hitler had some pretty good ideas. He was particularly good in the sciences. But look at what happens without God. If Hitler had accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior, he wouldn't have done anything wrong."

Steve interrupts: "Don't misunderstand mom. The only thing we have in common with Hitler is that we both use fire." (...and share an intolerance of of life styles and ideologies that differ from their own!)

When they were old enough, the Peters boys enrolled at North Central Bible College in Minneapolis. Three years ago, Jim was writing a term paper entitled "How Music Creates Moods" for a course in music and worship. "I discovered," he says, "that what I was hearing was not being said. There were a lot of subliminal things going on in rock and roll. And I started thinking, 'Where do these guys get their inspiration?' You think about that and pretty soon it becomes obvious that it's not from the Lord."

About a year and a half ago, the two brothers heard a cassette of a minister preaching about he evils of rock. By this time, both had been ordained by the Jesus People Fellowship in Minneapolis and had become associate pastors at the Zion Christian Life Center, founded by their father, LeRoy Peters, in 1969. They held their first rock seminar in 1979 over Thanksgiving weekend. One hundred fifty kids turned out and burned $15,000 worth of records.

The brothers soon had to figure out how to deal with the media attention. "We were getting calls from the local newspapers and television stations," says Steve. "We didn't know whether to talk to the media or not. Mom, she's really the person behind all our good works. Mom remembered a time before Billy Graham had hit it big, when [William Randolph] Hearst had told his reporters to punch Billy Graham. And mom said talking to the media is an excellent way to witness to thousands of people you could never meet otherwise."

"They just did a story on us in Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine with a picture of us and this local rock musician, Willie Murphy, of Willie and the Bees," Steve continues. "We're burning his albums, and he's putting the fire out with an extinguisher. His songs are so filthy!"

"Yeah," adds Jim. "One guy from a local TV station told us we really knew how to stage a media event. I didn't know what he was talking about - you don't learn that stuff in Bible College - and he explained: "Slow news time on the weekends, good visuals at burnings, the New Right. It's just the Lord's work to me."

-end

More On The Morons:

Here's a great story about what went down at one of the Peters Brothers "Seminars" in Ohio from a member of an organization called Rock Out Censorship. This is very similar to what I witnessed and participated in when I had the opportunity to see The Peters Brothers a few times. I saw them do their "What The Devil's Wrong With Rock Music" seminar in three different towns in Minnesota during the mid-late 1980's, and each time I saw them, entire crews of teenaged kids turned up to heckle and torture these poor bastards all throughout their presentation.

27 years ago today, Kiss brought their "Creatures Of The Night" tour to Bloomington, MN. Special guest was the lovely and talented Wendy O. Williams and the Plasmatics.

I picked up the above photo at a local antiques shop a few years ago for $1.00. The lady selling it had found it in a box of miscellaneous paper goods she was selling. She said her son had taken the photo at a Kiss concert at Met Center but she was unsure of the year. It is absolutely from the 02/18/83 show. You can see some really great shots from this show and an autographed (by Vinnie Vincent) show ad HERE.

Before the show started a few interesting things were happeninhg. Out in the parking lot of the Met Center, the Plasmatics were staging a fund raiser of some sort where, for $1.00, you could take a whack at helping to destroy a car a car with a sledge hammer. Meanwhile, backstage, the members of Kiss were busy defending their good name against charges of Satanism and leading the youth of America astray. Their adversaries: Pastors Dan and Steve Peters of the Zion Christian Life Center in St. Paul, MN. In 1979, the Peters Brothers as they were more commonly known, had started a group called "Truth About Rock Ministries" out of their concern about the supposed evil influences of rock and roll music on the youth of America. They wrote a few books on the subject and held their "educational seminars" and staged record burnings throughout the country for much of the 1980's, paving the way for later efforts by the P.M.R.C. On this particular day, their target was Kiss.

Revs. Dan & Steve Peters, founders of 'Truth About Rock Ministries'

A few days before this concert, Gene Simmons spoke to Dan Peters via telephone with the Star Tribune's Jon Bream acting as a sort of mediator. The interview ran on the day of the concert here, in the 02/18/83 issue of the Star Tribune. On the day of the show, before the concert got underway, Gene Simmons again chatted with Dan Peters via telephone, this time appearing on the local Ch.4 (WCCO) TV news. Mr. Peters said he had dreamed and prayed about meeting Kiss and Gene Simmons responded by saying, "See, your prayers can come true. And they will tonight." He was refering to the fact that The Peters Brothers were to interview the band in their dressing room later in the day at Met Center.

The following is a transcription of the phone interview between Gene Simmons and Dan Peters as it appeared in the Star Tribune newspaper:

"Minister, Kiss member Square off in bout over content of Albums"by Jon BreamMinneapolis Star Tribune 02/18/83

Ladies and gentlemen, in this corner, from New York City, the man with the endless tongue, the man who spits blood and breathes fire, the spokesman for heavy metal rock's most visible band, Kiss...at 32 years of age, Mr. Gene Simmons.

In the other corner, from North St. Paul, the man who preaches the gospel, the man who has urged young people to burn more Kiss records than any other devil-eradicating preacher, the man who will be attending his first Kiss concert tonight at Met Center, from Zion Christian Life Center, at age 31...the Rev. Dan Peters.

Your referee or moderator, a veteran of more Kiss concerts than record burnings, Mr. Jon Bream.

Peters: Yeah, we've heard some of Kiss's music. I do not spend alot of time listening to records, we do read quite a few lyric sheets and try to read the pulp magazines that are coming out in the area of rock. I have heard enough to be a little familiar with your sound and have seen some videos of your stage shows.

Simmons: I can't say I'm at all familiar with Dan's work.

Peters: We do what we call a seminar on rock music. We call it "What In The Devil's Wrong with Rock Music?" We share a lot of different lyrics, we talk about life styles and what musicians say they are trying to accomplish through their music. Then we ask young people to go home and ask their parents about it and make a decision about what groups they do and don't want to listen to.

Let me ask you about some of your lyrics, Gene. What does this mean? "The plaster's getting harder and my love is perfection/A token of my love for her collection/Plaster Caster grab ahold of me faster/If you wanna see my love, just ask her."

Simmons: That was written for a group of groupies, girls, who were big rock 'n' roll fans who came out of Chicago. It's an actual song based on fact. What these girs would do, to put it bluntly, is take their favorite rock star's private parts and make plaster casts of them. The song is an homage to them. I would feel honored if they would (make a cast of me.) I would go on records as saying I espouse sex as often as consenting people like to do it.

Peters: Why should you be so proud of your sexual antics when you know young people, highly impressionable high school kids, are looking for role models?

Simmons: I obviously think there's nothing wrong with it. The point is I'm a sexual person. The fact that it doesn't happen to agree with your life style or morality doesn't mean it's wrong. I'm not a monogamous person. I've tried it and it doesn't work for me. But I'm not going to get up on a soap box and tell people to get married or not to. I'm telling them I'm happy in my life style. I've had a thousand girls. How about that? It is childish. I'm a big kid with big toys and my responsibility absolutely ends with who to vote for, who to pray to, or whether to pray at all, that's absolutely their own business. My responsibility is to give them the best show in the world.

Peters: I always assumed Kiss has advocated these things because you're trying to hype it to sell more records. But you're telling me you live the way you sing?

Simmons: Yes, I would say so.

Peters: How can the young person who is caught up with so many voices coming at him, how can he determine as Kiss sings or he reads about the antics of his hero Gene Simmons, how is he going to determine in his own mind to make value judgements. To determine from what his parents are teaching him about values and what Gene Simmons is teaching him about values?

Simmons: How old are these young people?

Peters: Lets call them teen-agers.

Simmons: I do think you have different responsibilities to preteens than teens.

Peters: The thing that I'm concerned about when you know young people are looking for a hero and they hear the voices of two people, one is the voice of their parents and the other is the voice of their favorite rock star.

Simmons: If a 16 or 17 year old is going to think once or twice about the life style they're going to lead, they're not going to get married or not get married because of Kiss. They're going to look at their moms and dads. I would want people, as mature, free thinking, 20th century man, to really make up their own minds, regardless of what mom and dad, preachers or rock stars espouse.

Bream: To perhaps clarify this, before Mr. Simmons was a member of Kiss he was a sixth grade teacher. What kind of responsibility and influence did you feel you had on your students then, and how has that concept of influence and responsibility to your audience changed?

Simmons: I think the responsibility of the teacher is to relay knowlendge as the teacher has learned it and to the best of the teacher's ability and as fairly as possible. Knowledge changes, morality changes. I stopped being a teacher for persoanl reasons. I didn't want to relay information. I wanted to entertain people and take them away from the fact they had homework to do or that their parents were on their backs. I wanted to be a fantasy figure.

Peters: Gene, I don't think rock music is solely responsible for all the evils of our society.

Simmons: Rock and roll is the savior of society in my estimation. It started off as race music in the 1950's. Your friends were burning rock 'n' roll records back then because it was "Nigra" records. It was the Inquisition all over again. Rock and roll saw right through that crap. It's got nothing to do with racism. This is great music and so what if it's black music?

Peters: We don't necessarily burn rock music because it's racist. What we do when we get out on stage is say, "You have a moral responsibility to your neighbor."

Simmons: Except there's one difference between you and I, Dan. At the end of our concerts, where it's my contention we don't preach anyting, we don't say, "Send your dollars to support our point of view because we want to have fuel for our Learjet." That's oversimplifying it but you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Simmons: You see, the ironic point is I could agree with you. What I'm doing is playing devils advocate because in this country what you believe is your absolute right to believe and you can't force anyone else to beleive that. And that's the point. You can't ask anybody if they're leading a good Christian life because it's none of your business, and good life is not synonymous with Christian because there are Jews and Bhudists and Muslims. The equation of one with the other is warped and archaic. And I resent it. I'm a humanist basically. And I've got high moral beliefs.

Peters: Tell us your high moral beliefs.

Simmons: Don't lie. Don't hurt anybody. I believe your common purpose in life is to work hard and enjoy life and part of enjoying life is really enjoying sex.

Peters: I accept the fact that there are going to be people who believe differently than me and that Gene Simmons believes differently than me. Then I would raise the question does Gene Simmons believe that being interviewed and sharing your life style and through your lyrics, do you influence the way anybody else thinks?

Simmons: I don't think there are many.

Bream: Rev. Peters, what do you think is constructive or destructive about burning records?

Peters: We think just as a rock musician makes a public statement about what he's saying, doing or trying to accomplish, whether it's entertainment or sharing values or teaching values without knowing they're teaching, we think that young people, when they make the decision which way they want to go, they should then go that direction. So in our seminars we give people the opportunity that if what Gene Simmons is singing about is diametrically opposed to the direction they want to go in their life - because studies have proven the power of music and Jimi Hendrix said, "You can hypnotize people with music," and he said, "We can really preach at the subconscience if you really wantr to," then we encourage young people to get rid of this material. Some of 'em break 'em, some of 'em burn 'em.

Simmons: Let me just say this about that. I believe Dan and the people he comes in contact with have every right in the world to burn any record they choose. I'd be proud if they were Kiss records, as long as they buy them first. Play them backwards, balance them on your nose, burn 'em. That's absolutely your right.

Peters: To me it's the same with garbage. If you've got garbage in your house and it stinks, get rid of it. If you have stuff in your house that you see no value in, get rid of it. What we're trying to do now, Gene, is to get people to stop listening to you, and instead of buying your records, we're encouraging them to buy guys like Joe English or B.J. Thomas who have gone on to singing the same style of music, but they're singing songs with positive values.

Simmons: But Dan, they're not cool. To a 17 year old teenage mind, it's not cool.

Peters: Some of them have got real with it sounds. There are some heavier groups. You can go either direction. There are some groups that are almost identical in sound to Kiss and yet they're singing about some positive values, things that will build that kid and make him a better part and useful part of society. Those are the things we encourage them to buy.

Simmons: First, realize the term rock 'n' roll, to be blunt, means...

Peters: Sexual Intercourse.

Simmons: You got it. It comes from an old blues tune, "Let me rock 'n' roll you all night long." Rock 'n' roll is sex.

Peters: We don't even like the title. That's why we prefer to call it "Contemporary Christian Music."

Simmons: Even the big word is offensive. It sounds like a guy with a three piece suit. I reject contemporary because it sounds pompous. It's like calling the garbage man a sanitary policeman.

Peters: Gene, let me tell you one thing we're doing. I really hope that we can affect your record sales. I'm hoping we can run you out of business. I'd love to see you get on stage and say, "I've really gone the wrong direction. I've lifted up sex as my God. I'm comiting my life to Jesus Christ."

Simmons (who grew up in a Jewish household): Oh my God.

Peters: "I want to live by His principals." There's nothing that would thrill me more. In fact, Gene, I've even had prayer meetings for you in Minneapolis.

Simmons: Thanks for praying for me. Let me get this straight. First you're espousing certain moral beliefs. Second, you want to make sure everyone converts to Christianity.

Peters: Yep. Just as you would like everyone to adopt your standards.

Simmons: That's not true. In all honesty, so help me God or anything else you hold sacred, I absolutely do not.You know why? Because not everyone will agree. All I'm telling you is I believe my life style agrees with me. I don't think you should do it because you believe getting married and having kids is great. I support you in that. I don't want you to do what I do. That's the basic difference between you and I.

Peters: Let me tell you our next step. We've started a national petition drive to rate rock records. We're attempting to get record producers, if the subject deals with groupies and making plaster casts of penises, we think there should be a logo in the upper right hand corner of the album that says, "Caution. This album includes lyrics that sing about making casts of penises." So the parents know what you're singing about upfront.

Simmons: Oh, I may even do that willingly. What a great idea! I may do it like a new movie, you know, "Thrills. Chills. Laughter. Watch this guy hurl into space. See the girl with no top on." I think it's a great idea. I would fight anybody to try to legislate any sort of situation, but I thank you for giving me the idea on the next record to put on some sort of thrilling logo.

Peters: Because so many parents coming to our seminars have said, "if only I'd known where Gene Simmons is coming from, I would never have given my money to this kid to buy that crazy record."

Simmons: He or she can't prevent their children from buying or doing whatever they want to do because they will anyway. And the more parents try to stop their children from leading their life style, the more attractive the life style is going to be. I thank you for giving me the idea. It's a wonderful marketing device. "New Kiss record: More sex than ever before!" I love it.

Bream: Well, you finally agree on something. And our time is up.

-end

Later in the afternoon, Dan and Steve Peters met with Kiss in their dressing room backstage at the Met Center in Bloomington, MN where this conversation over "life styles" and "ideologies" continued. Kiss went on stage later in the evening, entertaining 5,370 fans. The Peter's Brothers attended the concert and were horified at what they witnessed. They even snuck a tape recorder into the show so they could record bits of the show to "give parents an idea of what goes on at a Kiss concert." At one point during the show Paul Stanley asked the crowd from the stage if they cared what "those preachers thought about us?" The crowd roared its disapproval with an emphatic "No!" Stanley then asked the crowd, "Do you care what your parents think about us?" Again, a ear shattering "No!" response from the crowd. Stanley, "We don't give a FUCK!!!" Crowd roars it's approval - concert continues.

A few months after the show, The Peters Brothers had put together and began selling a cassette at their "Truth About Rock" seminars, titled, "Kiss Exposed." The cassette featured a recording of the interview printed above, as well as the interview they conducted with the band backstage in in Bloomington on Feb. 18th. I managed to get a copy at one of their "seminars" that I attended a year or so later. I still have the tape.

UPDATE: 11/11/10
Friend of the Kiss Army Michael Brandvold has uploaded the entire tape.
You can listemn to it on his website HERE.

This was not the only tape of this type the Peters Brothers produced. There were others such as, "AC/DC: Wanted For Murder" (which dealt with AC/DC's lyrics, including "Shoot To Thrill" which had supposedly led some youngster somewhare to commit suicide), "Backmasking Unmasked" (which dealt with the supposed trend of rock artists recording hidden "backward Satanic messages" on their records) and even, "Stryper: Whose Side Are They Really On?" (which attacked the Christian band Stryper and questioned their "authenticity" in their belief and ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ). They also sold several (dis)informational pamphlets and in 1984 or so even released a book titled, "Why Knock Rock." Having attended the Peter's Brothers seminars a few times in my early teen years, I used to own all of these materials but over the years I have sold off most of them to friends. Only the "Kiss Exposed" cassette remains in my collection at this time.

(Above) Kiss were, by this point in their careers, well used to the attention and criticism they were receiving from religious people like the Peters Brothers. The above cartoon was published in the April 1980 issue of Playboy Magazine and described a protest outside a Kiss concert in Amarillo, TX on 12/03/79.

UPDATE: 10/29/13 - 5:55pm

After years of waiting for it to surface, someone has FINALLY uploaded some video from this concert. The 1:57 clip shows those not-so-lovable Peters Brothers in a concourse somewhere within the Met Center in Bloomington, discussing the evils of Kiss as the show was taking place inside the hall. Unfortunately the uploader has disabled the embed code - so you'll have to go check it out on Youtube HERE.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Winter seems to be dragging on forever this year and I've been thinking quite a bit in recent weeks of warmer weather and celebrating the 4th of July in NYC.

A few weeks ago I stumbled on this: a great ABC newscast from July 4th, 1976. This is when the news was delivered by serious, no-nonsense guys, not some fashion show beauty queen wanna-be's. Included in this footage are highlights from 4th of July celebrations in San Francisco and Washington D.C., President Ford delivering an address at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, PA., and some great coverage of "Operation Sail"/The Parade of Ships that took place that day in New York Harbor and continued on up the Hudson River, including footage of a young-ish looking Ted Koppel reporting from Battery Park and some great footage from the top of the World Trade Center." Operation Sail" was the largest gathering of old sailing ships and military Naval vessels anywhere on the planet in history. There is also a great photo gallery of the event HERE.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Another great evening of 80's style Ratt 'n' Roll in Maplewood at The Rock. The show was great - I've seen Ratt several times and have never been disappointed in the performance.

The Ratt guys have been known to be pretty cool and stick around mingle with fans and sign some autographs after their shows, so I brought a few of my old Ratt cassette j-cards with me just in case. This time I managed to get a few items signed by guitarist Warren DeMartini. I saw lots of people having John Corabi and Jizzy Pearl sign their old Ratt albums and CD covers, but as these guys were not original members of the band and did not appear on these recordings and being that I'm a bit of a stickler in these matters I didn't want their signatures on these items. I'd have my chance to get several items signed by those guys the next time I saw the band in November of 2003 anyway. Drummer Bobby Blotzer was nowhere to be found so Warren's were the only autographs I obtained on this particular evening.

"Ratt" EP (1983) - The original "Time Coast Records" edition, not the later Atlantic Records reissue.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Happy Valentines Day to you all. I'd been debating what song to put up here yesterday. I came up with "My Love Is Like A Tire Iron" (Ted Nugent), "Love Is Like A Slap In The Face" (Kiss), "I Don't Believe in Love" (Queensryche), "Love Comes In Spurts" (Richard Hell and the Voidoids) and "Love Is For Suckers" (Twisted Sister). I decided they were all good choices but somewhat inappropriate.

We don't do the ultra-pop-disco thing much around here but there were a few good bands of that genre. Desmond Child and Rouge were one of the few. This was way before Desmond Child became an in-demand song witer and wrote such crap as "Livin' La Vida Loca" for Rcky Martin. This comes from their 1979 album and it just drips a 1970's feel. I think it's the funky "thwap thwap" bass line. Anyway, enjoy...

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Arcade was a pretty cool, short lived band that was fronted by Steven Pearcy of Ratt and featured Fred Coury of Cinderella on drums and a guy named Frankie (Wilsey) Wilsex on guitar. Wilsex had previously been in another great, way underrated and seemingly forgotten band called Sea Hags. Arcade managed to release 2 CD's, one each in 1993 and 1994, and then split up. They also toured almost constantly during this time frame and I was lucky enough to catch them for the rock bottom price of only $3.00 when they came through here, playing at the legendary Mirage in Minneapolis. There was an opening band, maybe two, but since I don't have the print ad or a flyer for the show, the names of those bands have been lost to history.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

(Images via: NYCDreamin Archives)
Back in 1985, AC/DC released an album called "Fly On The Wall." Shortly after the album was released, the band released a companion VHS, also titled "Fly On The Wall," which contained videos for 5 of the songs on the album.

Fly On The Wall VHS front cover (above) and back cover (below)

As you can see, on the back cover the band is shown playing on a small stage amid some rubble near the Brooklyn Bridge with the World Trade Center looming in the background. At the beginning of the video, there is a skeezy club named "The Crystal Ballroom" located on this spot. The band is introduced by a hack comedian, they take the stage, and through 5 songs, all kinds of characters come through the club and a weird photographer guy keeps sneaking around, trying to photograph the band. By the end of the 5th video, the club is in rubble and the band is left playing on a stage out in the open as shown on the back cover. It was all probably shot on some sound stage, maybe not even in NYC, but it's fun to watch. So, without further delay - here's 25 minutes of AC/DC doing what they do best, straight up rocking and rolling and dishing out all the sexual innuendo you can handle - circa 1985.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

No big story about this one...just that it was a great show. A few years prior to this Ozzy had decided to take a break from touring, announcing that he was retiring from the music business. That only lasted about a year and soon he was back in the studio working on a new CD and soon after that he was back on the road.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

It's hard for me to believe this show was 23 years ago - this was back when an arena rock show was a spectacle - everything about it was large and out of control.

It was a Saturday, as such there was no school that day. I spent most of the late morning and early afternoon over at the home of my then-girlfriend, watching MTV in her bedroom (in those days it WAS watchable) and variously making out with her and telling her how awesome this concert was gonna be - she was a year or so younger than me and her parents were not gonna let her go to the show. Around mid-afternoon, I hopped on my bike, rode home and waited impatiently for my friends to arrive so we could head to the liquor store to grab our supplies for the evening (being only 16, it was nice to know the right people) and be on our way. They soon arrived, we picked up our booze (a case of Strohs and a liter of Strawberry Schnapps - I know, there was no accounting for taste.) and were on our way. We made it about half-way to Duluth and stopped in this little town called Floodwood. There is this huge bridge over the river there, and this seemed like the perfect place to pull over and have a few beers before continuing on our way. This was to become a routine we would follow each time we went to concerts in Duluth. We each sucked down a few luke-warm ones (no cooler, just a case of beer hidden carefully in the trunk) and got back on the road. About 40 minutes later, with a nice buzz going, we were pulling into the parking lot of the Duluth Arena and it looked like the party had started without us.

Like I said, everything about this show was large and out of control. The parking lot was mobbed by thousands of teen-age kids and young people. There were hot rocker chicks and dudes that looked like hot rocker chicks everywhere I looked. Car doors and trunks were propped open, you could hear hard-rock/heavy metal tunes blaring from most of the vehicles assembled, each trying to be louder than the next. Gathered around each vehicle were crowds of (mostly) kids, almost everyone I could see was drinking something and things were starting to get pretty rowdy. I also spotted several Duluth cops walking around. They didn't seem to give a rats ass about all the underage consumption of alcohol that was occuring - they seemed to be just keeping an eye out for fights. We parked our car, popped the trunk, grabbed our beers and started partying with the people next to us. We were already having a great time and still had an hour or so before the doors opened so we planned on drinking as much as we could to get good and ready for the show. Soon it was time...we packed what was left of our booze back into the trunk, closed it up, locked up the car and headed off to join the rowdy throng of people now making their way inside the Arena.

Once inside the box-office area, there were several lines of people forming to go through the 10 or so entrances to the main part of the arena. At each entrance there was a guy who would take your ticket and rip off the end of it, as another guy, along with a member of the Duluth Police Department had you open your jacket and/or purse so they could search for contraband - drugs, alcohol, weapons. It didn't appear they were finding much in the way of drugs or weapons, but they were coming up with entire liquor stores worth of booze. There was a 50 gallon trash can stationed at each entrance and they were filling up rapidly with cans of beer and bottles of booze. I was wondering what they were gonna do with all that liquor - probably have a giant party of their own at some point I imagined. We made it to the front of the line, and being the good boys we were (!) had nothing to hide, opened our jackets and, found to be free of banned substances, passed through into the concourse area of the arena. We immediately headed over to the merchandise booth and I looked over the t-shirts. They seemed to be a bit spendy for my blood, so I held on to the few dollars I had in my pocket and we made our way into the arena.

Soon it was obvious that the security guys had missed a lot of booze and drugs at the entry check-points. Clouds of pot smoke could be seen (and smelled) rising from the crowd. Looking around, it didn't take long to notice that lots of people had still managed to smuggle some booze in despite the search at the doors. The party commenced to continue as the stage crews hurriedly finished pre-show duties. We were talking amongst ourselves, wondering what opening act Andy Taylor (the rockinest' of the Durans) would be like. Soon the house lights went down and a roar erupted from the crowd as the show was about to begin.

A few stage lights flickered on and this amazing noise of guitars starts...really cool sounding stuff. The band appears on stage - and it's certainly NOT Andy Taylor. A few minutes into the set, we figured out we were seeing Tesla, a band who'd recently begun appearing with some regularity on MTV. I was wondering what had happened that Andy Taylor was not the opener as had been being advertised on local TV stations, and at the same time, kind of relieved...these Tesla guys were tearing the place apart - they were rockin' the hell out of this nearly sold-out crowd and people were loving them it seemed as the cheers and screams after each song were almost deafening. They played maybe 45 minutes and finished up as strongly as they had begun.
The house lights came up, the PA began blasting the usual mix of between set tunes by AC/DC, Motley Crue, Ratt, Accept and other heavyweights of the hair metal scene of the day. Tons of people were moving about, heading to the bathrooms or concession stands. I told my buddies I'd be right back and hurried up to the t-shirt booth once again - I picked out a Tesla t-shirt and plunked down my $15.00 - they'd impressed me that much - and hurried back to where my buddies were waiting for me. As this was a general admission show, we decided to get out of the upper deck and head down to the floor and try to squeeze in down front as close as we could get to the stage. We managed to push our way up to about only 20 rows back from the massive stage and on our way down we'd noticed several people passed out along the walls of the lower level, their concerned friends standing over them wondering what to do now. We also saw one funny incident...these guys were smoking some pot in a cool looking pipe. All of a sudden this security guy appears out of nowhere and tells them to hand the pipe over. The guy who had it took a few more hits and offered it to one of his buddies who grabbed it and hit off it as well. The security guy didn't seem too amused and again demanded they hand over the pipe. Another of the guys grabbed it quickly and hit it as well and as he was attempting to pass it on to the next guy, the fed up security guy just grabbed it out of his hand and began to walk away. The guys were left, pipeless, to enjoy the rest of the concert. I'm sure this scenario was playing out all over the arena.

About 30 minutes later, the house lights went out and a roar went up from the crowd as the David Lee Roth band took the stage.

The curtain dropped, revealing a massive stage that seemed to be one giant wall of speakers and PA. And the light rig was incredible - it seemed there were thousands of lights and I seem to remember reading someplace that, at that time, it was the largest light rig ever constructed for a touring band. Roth was in top form, running around the stage like a spandex-clad maniac as his band, bass god Billy Sheehan, guitar hero Steve Vai and drummer Greg Bisonette pounded out the tunes, including songs from Roth's recently released debut solo album, "Eat 'Em And Smile," and of course a generous helping of Van Halen tunes. At one point, Steve Vai disappeared for a moment, returning to the stage, standing atop a mountain of speakers on the left side of the stage. He was holding this really cool looking "flame-shaped" guitar and a second or so passed and he began playing the intro to "Unchained," which has always been a favorite Van Halen tune of mine. He was killing - playing the song much better and heavier than Eddie Van Haled could ever dream...it was awesome. As the show progressed, it seems like every other song or so Vai had a new guitar. David Lee Roth was entertaining as hell - it was easy to see why he'd left Van Halen to tour on his own - here he was in complete control of the show and what a show this was turning out to be.

About the midway point in the show, Roth and Bisonette left the stage and Vai and Sheehan traded bass and guitar licks back and forth for a good 10 minutes, thrilling all the aspiring guitarists in the crowd. This was followed by a long drum solo by Bisonette, who climbed all over his drum kit as he pounded the shit out of it. The full band finally returned to the stage and the show continued. Dave had changed his spandex during the break, from yellow and black ones to red and black ones. He was now taking huge swigs from a bottle of Jack Daniels and then he stepped to the front of the stage and splooshed the bottle over the first few rows - people went wild. I was thinking how glad I was not to be up there getting JD poured all over me...if I smelled like that when we were driving home and we happened to get pulled over - there would be no way of convincing the cops that we hadn't been drinking. The show raged on and things were now completely out of control. All around us, girls had climbed up on their boyfriends' shoulders and everywhere you looked you could see hot, drunken teenage girls lifting their shirts, pulling off their bras and baring their flesh as visual offerings to the band. Bras and panties, as well as shoes (!) were flying up on to the stage. Clouds of pot and cigarette smoke were making the arena blue with a thick, smoky haze. Beach balls and rolls of toilet paper were flying around the arena. People were holding lighters aloft and a few crazies had smuggled in cans of hair spray - holding one of these up and igniting it with a lighter gave you an instant flame thrower and every once in a while you'd see this huge spray of flame erupt from out of nowhere in the middle of the crowd. People with long hair (which was almost everyone) were lucky to escape unscathed by these pyros.

After close to two hours of this complete insanity, it was time for the show to come to a close.

The band left the stage, the house lights came up and people started filing out of the arena, back out to the parking lot. By the time we got to our car the party had begun all over again - the tunes were blaring - people were drinking and yelling and cheering and high-fiving. We popped the trunk of our car, quickly washed down a few beers and decided to hit the road...we had a long drive back home and it was getting late. We managed to make it back to Grand Rapids in one piece and without being pulled over by cops, which was always a good thing. I think back on those days when we didn't hesitate to drink and then drive and I wonder what the hell was wrong with us...we were 16, 17 years old and I guess we just thought we were invincible. Now I know we weren't, we were just young, kinda stupid...and really lucky.

Friday, February 5, 2010

D.R.I. returns to St. Paul this evening for the first time in god knows how long. I had been planning on attending the show with an old friend I have not seen in about 15 years but something came up and he is unable to attend. And it's been snowing overnight and looks like it's supposed to snow right through today and into the evening which will make the 30 mile drive to the show through rush hour traffic absolutely miserable - what usually takes about 40 minutes will probably take closer to two hours. As such, it looks like I will not be attending this show after all, but I still wanted to share the ad. Hopefully the weather in nicer where you are...

Thursday, February 4, 2010

So today, 15 years to the day since the first time I saw Slayer, will be just another day. It was SUPPOSED to be the day I finally got to see Slayer and Testament share the stage, an event I've been hoping to witness for about 20 years now. Oh, and Megadeth was gonna be there too, having their asses handed to them by two far superior bands. But back in early January it was announced that Slayer's Tom Araya, suffering from Cervical Radiculopathy (aka Herniated disc) needed to undergo a surgical procedure known as Anterior Cervical Disectomy with Fusion to correct the problem, so the tour was postponed. Just this past week it was finally announced that Araya is on the mend and doing well and the new dates will take place in August. At least the tickets I purchased back in December will still be honored and I won't have to go through the hassle of exchanging them.

In the meantime, Testament and Exodus will hit the road in March. Oh, and Megadeth will be there too, having their asses handed to them on a nightly basis by two far superior bands. Unfortunately, this tour will not be making a stop in the Twin Cities.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

15 years ago this week I saw Slayer for the first time. I remember being very excited for several days prior to the show and on the day of the show I could hardly sit still. "PriestFreakNo.1" and I spent the afternoon milling about his house, cranking the Slayer tunes and generally making his wife crazy while waiting for our buddy "P.J." to arrive. He finally showed up around dinner time (I think we had Tacos, it was sort of a tradition when I visited the PreistFreak household.) and we were soon on our way to St. Paul.

Despite the fact that it had been snowing off and on all day we made pretty good time over to St. Paul, but when we got to within a few blocks of the venue, the Roy Wilkins Auditorium, we were caught in serious traffic gridlock. Seems everyone else in town was going to the St. Paul Civic Center (now gone, replaced by the Xcel Energy Center) to see "The World's Toughest Rodeo." "How exciting for them," I was thinking as we sat there, inching forward for what seemed like an eternity. As we inched along, I kept looking at my watch and commenting that the show had probably already started and we were no doubt missing Machine Head. It was suggested that I could always get out and walk the rest of the way. I was tempted but it was pretty cold out so I stayed in the car. There was nothing that could be done about this situation except sit back and try to be patient. Soon we managed to get into the parking ramp near the arena and we raced over to the Roy Wilkins and as we entered the venue we could hear music. We'd completely missed Machine Head and as we walked in to the hall, Biohazard was already on stage blasting away. Damn! I'd really wanted to see these guys too! We only managed to catch probably half of their set. They were good, what we saw of them anyway.

Of course Slayer was fucking amazing. They were just brutal, there is no other way to describe their live show...pure 100% brutality. They say you never forget your first time and I'm sure this applies to Slayer concerts as well as sex. I'll never forget this show. I've seen Slayer a few times since then but this one always holds a special place in my memories.

After the show was over we headed out to the parking ramp to retrieve the car. It was snowing again. We got in to the car, got out of the ramp and made it a few blocks and all of a sudden the car dies. There hadn't even been enough time for the heater to kick in yet. I don't even remember whose car it was, if it was PriestFreaks car or, P.J.'s, but it died in the middle of the street in downtown St. Paul. We cranked it over a few time before whomever was driving realized...the car was out of gas! Much bitching and complaining and blame laying ensued and I think the final word on the matter was something like, "Well, I didn't think we'd be stuck in stand-still traffic for an hour before the show, so fuck off!" So two of us got out and pushed the car out of the way of traffic and I think P.J. took off with someone to get to a nearby gas station and get a few gallons of gas. He soon returned with a container of gas and we were soon back on the road for the drive home, laughing about our own stupidity and discussing how amazing the Slayer show had been.

It's now been 15 years since this concert, and sadly, this was the last time I attended a concert with either PreistFreakNo.1 or P.J. We used to go to a lot of shows together but P.J. had already moved back to northern Minnesota and we didn't know it at the time, but PriestFreak was about to move back there as well. We just seemed to go our seperate ways as people will do, but I miss going to shows with those guys and I hope we are able to do it again sometime soon. I'm thinking about this quite a lot this week because in two days I'll be attending a D.R.I. concert in St. Paul with another one of my old crew, a friend I haven't seen in about 15 years. This will be the first time we've been to a concert together in 19 years. The last one we attended together, along with PriestFreakNo.1, was way back in May 1991, Queensryche and Suicidal Tendencies in Duluth, MN. I'm thinking D.R.I. should be a perfect place to pick up where things left off all those years ago. I'm hoping to have some photos and/or video of the show to share on Saturday.

7 years ago today, The Queers played one of their high-energy shows at CBGB. The show was recorded and eventually saw release in 2008 as part of the "CBGB Masters" series. The band was originally formed in 1982 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and throughout the years has undergone numerous lineup changes that have seen over 30 different members rotate in and out of various lineups of the group.

You can pick up your own copy of this high-energy show direct from CBGB.com.